Sunday, May 12, 2013

Since it's spring and the latest Social Security list has been released (EARLY! What a pleasant surprise!), I've been inspired to revamp the blog. I feel awful that I log in to see that people were actually READING my blog and I hadn't bothered with any updates - new year, new beginning. Since the last time I posted, I have gotten married and am less than a month away from delivering a new baby girl (whose name is STILL up in the air - being a name nerd has it's down sides, it makes actually choosing and committing to a name extremely hard to do!).

I have been a name nerd since I was 14 years old and every name nerd knows that having a baby girl to name is basically the ultimate dream for us, especially if given free reign. That's exactly what I have been presented with (to an extent - I really did take his opinion into account, I don't want HIM to regret what we choose, either) and I thought I would share my personal thought's and struggles with what we all dream of.

Firstly - I have a husband and we do NOT share similar tastes in names. For privacy reasons, I will keep my step-children's names to myself - I do not dislike them, but they are far from my own style. He has known since very early in our relationship that I have a love for names. He has seen my incredible (incredibly embarrassing?) collection of name books, notebooks, journals, online bookmarks and musings about names. This being the case, he has insisted from the beginning that *I* choose the name since he has already had his turn and it was obviously something very important to me.

Secondly - I have been in a name rut for a long time, close to a year. Nothing looks new or shiny or pretty to me. Everything felt dull and lifeless and the thought of choosing a name that I loved and was excited over seemed daunting and not nearly as fun as it should have been.

We had drawn up a "list" over the course of a year before I had even gotten that positive test. Cordelia, Penelope, Evangeline and Vivienne is what our list basically consisted of - middle names were basically set in stone. (Elspeth Johanna - after a very wonderful woman who is no longer with us and my two beloved sisters).Our boy's name had pretty much been set from day one - Dominic Henry Josiah (or possibly Dominic Henry Elijah, I hadn't officially chosen the second middle name). Dominic (as silly as this may seem to others) is from the Fast and The Furious movies - I am very well aware of how awful the movies are - but it's something my husband and I share and bonded over early in our relationship. We are both "car people", we enjoy looking, talking and dreaming about cars we would one day love to have and both had a secret love for the Fast and Furious movies and Dominic is a name I have always loved - the nickname Nico is so endearing and sweet it was an easy choice for us. Henry is after my grandfather on my mother's side.

Aside from that decision (which took almost no discussion), no names were discussed until after 23 weeks. My husband does not believe that discussing names before knowing the sex is helpful, so it's something he really stuck to. Due to scheduling, I did not get a gender scan until 23 weeks - when we found out our baby is a girl. We were both extremely excited - he desperately wanted another little girl and I already had a son, so this was great news - until name discussion did finally come up.

Penelope and Vivienne were both knocked off of the list rather quickly. As we all know, Penelope has been quickly gaining speed and my intuition was correct when the latest list was released - Penelope has entered the top 100. My son has a popular name and I did not want to go down that road again. Vivienne seemed to be popping up everywhere as well and it was not at the top of my list anyway.

That left us with Evangeline and Cordelia from the original list and I "decided" on Cordelia. I told my mother, my sisters and my name-nerd friends. This stuck for a good 3 months until I hit about 33 weeks and I started getting cold feet. What is wrong with Cordelia? It's long, feminine, beautiful,has literary connections and nicknames galore - all of which are basic requirements for me when choosing a name. I couldn't put my finger on what felt wrong until I started saying the name out loud - I didn't actually love the sound. I know that sounds crazy, but I don't actually SAY names out loud very often and our name discussions had been short and to the point - I only ever said the name out loud a handful of times. The more I said it, the more I realized that "deal" sound in it bugged me and I couldn't stand it after a while!

That's when panic set in and I decided to "start over" (with less than 2 months to go at this point). I went through many lists suggested to me by fellow name-nerds, I wrote lists, revised them and presented them to my husband. Each time the list would come back full of veto's. Admittedly, from a non-name-nerd standpoint, the names I was bringing back DO seem quite out there and I admit to forgetting that the majority of the people in her life WON'T love language and have the background to be able to pronounce or spell things like Nimue. "You shouldn't need a dictionary or a degree in linguistics to be able to spell and pronounce a child's name" said my husband.

And now that I have stopped and considered everything, he DOES have a point. As much as *I* love Greek myth and literature, most people will have zero idea where her name comes from and it's doing a disservice to her to saddle her with a choice that is so unknown and unfamiliar in our language that she will be forever having to explain herself and her name. I am NOT saying that you should not get creative or not use a name simply because it has potential to be mispronounced or misspelled - it's just not something that *I*, personally, want to deal with. I put a higher priority on other aspects of names, obscurity is nice but certainly not required. After several weeks of "lists" containing everything from the aforementioned Nimue to oddballs like Belphoebe and Talitha- we eventually came back to Evangeline.

I guess I couldn't see it before, but it IS the perfect name for us. It's long, feminine, has lovely nicknames (my husband particularly loves Evie (ee-vee) as a nickname) isn't overly popular but is not obscure to the point where people haven't heard of it or won't be able to spell it. It's a name that will last her through adulthood and give her a professional name to put on her resume while still maintaining the ability to have cute nicknames. I am positive the reason I choose Cordelia over Evangeline in the beginning was the popularity. Cordelia has never been in the top 500 in the US and has not been seen in the top 1000 for YEARS, it's extremely rare. Evangeline is barely over the top 300. I preach to people all the time that popularity should not be a deterrent and you should use a name you love no matter where it sit's on the social security list - yet, when it came to my own child, it was literally going to be the deciding factor! Hypocrite? Probably.

The social security list for 2012 came out earlier this week and that is when this realization hit me. Evangeline DROPPED in popularity (only a tiny bit) and I guess that gave me the confidence to say that I really wanted to use it and skip Cordelia. Now, I cannot promise you that I will not come back in here and announce the birth of our baby with a completely different name, but I feel pretty confident about my choice at the moment.

Has being a name-nerd hindered my ability to name my own child? Yes, I really believe it has. I feel like I have seen and heard everything and that the pressure coming from my peers to choose something stunning and rare was pretty overwhelming.

Has anyone else had a similar situation? Please share your naming stories with me, I would love to hear them!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Since the mid - late 90's, virtue and other "spiritual" ideas and words have been gaining in popularity. Some are feeling outdated and stale - Trinity, Destiny, Hope, Faith, and Heaven all spring to mind - not to mention Nevaeh (blech). In the past 3 or 4 years, I've seen a resurgence of the more classical "puritan" style virtues on the naming boards and birth announcements - Verity, Constance, Amity, Temperance, and Prudence, i find these more refreshing and I quite life a few of them. While a lot of these are decidedly masculine or feminine, I feel that words are unisex.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

I have a personal fondness for names hailing from Eastern Europe. I feel that they have a certain exotic appeal and many have beautiful meanings. I left out ethnic variations of popular names, mainly focusing on names deriving from specific languages, often actual words that are used for names.

The ladies.....

Darina - "gift" - Bulgarian

Kalina - "rowan tree" - Bulgarian

Lala - "tullip" - Bulgarian

Mira - "peace" - Bulgarian

Zora - "dawn" - Bulgarian

Eha - "dusk" - Estonian

Kaja - "echo" - Estonian (kah-yah)

Laine - " wave" - Estonian (lah-eh-neh, from what I understand

Luule - "poetry" - Estonian (From what I understand, looh-leh might be a close pronunciation, I'm not positive, I couldn't find an official one anywhere).

Ilma - air" - Finnish (eel-ma)

Minttu - "mint" - Finnish (meen - too)

Satu - "fable" - Finnish (sah-too)

Hella - "gentle" - Finnish

Kielo -"lily of the valley" - Finnish (key-a-low, from what I'm understanding"

Saturday, July 14, 2012

The past decade has brought to life a new trend - surnames as first names. Surnames have been used as first names for a very, very long time but until recently, the trend was used mainly for men and was generally limited to specific names that were popular at the time and maiden / family names. Now, everywhere I look, I see bolder, more unusual choices - even on girls. I've seen monikers such as Wallace, Campell, and Ripley turning to the feminine side and Bowie, Edison and Fletcher for the boys. I personally do not care for surnames on girls - not even a little bit. The huge majority sound profoundly masculine and don't even provide the benefit of a feminine nicknames. Wallace - Wally? Ripley - Rip? No thanks. For a boy, it harkens back a kind of traditional, vintage charm for me. I also feel like there are a lot of surnames that have "gone girl" the past few years that would make nice choices for boys - Avery, Madison, Addison, Aubrey, Mackenzie, Morgan, Kennedy, Emery and Emerson. I think they sound a bit tired and uninspired for girls, but would make stylish and handsome picks for a boy. I think if you want to stay on trend, but want to stay within the realm of "traditional", a surname may be the way to go.

Friday, July 6, 2012

I want to do a post every once in a while showcasing names taken from The Telegraph birth announcements section. If your not sure what this is, The Telegraph is a UK based newspaper and the Birth Announcement's that are generally to be found in this particular paper tend to be on the quirky / stylish side. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/)

Girls:

Margot Elizabeth Ursula

Willow Amelie Grace

Matilda Marion Dora

Molly Rose Ghislaine

Tabitha Bo

Isolda Claudia Maria

Ottilie Monica Selda

Lucy Alice

Theodora Verity

Lily Estelle Emma Mary

Evie Alison Mary

Cecilia Altea

Elizabeth Mary

Alice Carolyn Elizabeth

India Amelie

Sophie Ann

Georgina Mary Beatrice

Orla Sophia Margot

Frances Leigh

Willa Jemima

Sophie Anne Ella

Katie Emma

Sophia Joanna

Agnes Rose

Amelia Jasmine

Camilla Claire Elizabeth

Nell Constance

Grace Elizabeth Jean

Eliza Georgina Georgina

Emilia Clementine

Rosanna Mary

Elizabeth Florence Victoria

Clementine Florence Mary

Felicity Martha Elizabeth

Allegra Octavia Hope

Emily Grace

Molly May

Sienna Amelie

Olivia Rose Cato

Allegra Florence Mary

Indiana Alice

Jessica Elizabeth

Francesca Lilibet

Morvoren Elizabeth

Boys:

Egan David Reid

Alexander Matthew and Harrison James

Archibald Nicholas Christopher

Anselm Charles Fitzwilliam

Conrad Nicholas Oppenheim

William John

Percy Edward

Mervyn James Glassbrook

Blake Laurent

Alfred Jack

George Alfred Thomas

Ethan Conway

William Thomas

Jude Harrison

Johnathan Arthur

Arthur James

Thomas Everard

Harry Thomas Albert

Oliver William

Ernest Merlin

James Anthony

James Ranald Arthur

Henry John Hunter

Wilfrid Alec Ferrand

Charles Ludwig Langton

Daniel John Joseph

Edward Louis Julius

Rupert Dorrien Aloysius George

Louis Oliver Alan

Conor Raymond

Edward John Michael

Alasdair John Drummond

Philip Hunter Errington

Patrick Windham

George Fredrick Stewart

Peter William

Elliot Jude

Alistair Colwyn Edward

Thought some of you might enjoy this. I wonder where Florence and Mary sit on the UK popularity lists?

Boys:
Felton
Shedrick
Newell
Sullivan
Julious
Hayden -
Harlow - both in the 800's for men in 1900, is this telling us something?
Thurston
Thornton
Addison - in the 700's in 1900 for men. Again - might this be telling us something?
Sylvan
Wilton
Aubrey - number 259 for men in 1900, yes, I am definitely starting to see the trend.
Cyrus
Wilford